Reading and ‘wrighting

Young Chang

It’s terrifying to hear your own words read aloud for the first time,

playwright Julia Cho said.

Unlike prose or poetry, dramatic stage works need to be heard and

perfected in the way they sound. The Brooklyn-based writer thought she’d

eventually get over the tremors of first-time readings. But Cho, whose

play “99 Histories” is part of next week’s Pacific Playwrights Festival,

still gets antsy when a new work becomes verbal.

“Sometimes it’s hard for me to be present at a reading,” the

26-year-old said. “Or I’m watching the audience. The audience will never

lead you wrong. If they’re engaged in it, you can feel it. If they’re

not, you can feel it.”

Cho and four other playwrights will have their works read aloud for

the readings segment of the fifth annual festival, which will continue in

August with the 17th annual Hispanic Playwrights Project.

The festival is split into two parts this year to work around SCR’s

expansion and construction.

Richard Greenberg’s “The Dazzle,” which received its West Coast

premiere last month at SCR and runs through April 28, and Horton Foote’s

current premiere of “Getting Frankie Married -- And Afterwards” are also

part of the festival.

Foote’s work had been presented as a reading at last year’s Pacific

Playwright’s Festival. Jennifer Kiger, associate director of the festival

and literary manager for the theater, said it has been SCR’s goal to

present a new staged work from a previous reading every year.

With construction closing SCR for most of the summer, theater leaders

have also eliminated workshop productions from this year’s festival and

instead replaced them with two full and new productions, hence

Greenberg’s “The Dazzle.”

Readings will highlight Cho’s “99 Histories,” “Exposed” by Beth

Henley, “Intimate Apparel” by Lynn Nottage, “Truth and Beauty” by Steven

Drukman and “Our Boy” by Julia Jordan.

“It really is an opportunity for not only the playwright to get to

[present] the play and learn more about it, but also for theater

professionals from all over America to have a chance to see the play for

the very first time,” Kiger said.

Amy Freed’s “The Beard of Avon,” which was staged last summer, is an

example of a work that was launched into theater’s good graces through

the 2000 festival.

Artistic directors, literary managers and other professionals from all

over the country attended the reading and booked “Avon,” which was

commissioned by SCR, to eventually be staged at their theaters.

“I certainly think of it as a really great step,” Cho said. “It’s

among the more public readings . . . and that’s invaluable, to have an

audience of just normal theatergoers.”

Cho is less nervous about “99 Histories” being read now, as it’s been

workshopped at the New York Theatre Workshop, the Sundance Theater Lab

and the Mark Taper Forum’s Asian American Theatre Workshop.

The play is about a Korean girl trying to figure out her origins by

sifting through memories, imaginings and facts passed down through

different points of views.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of origins,” said Cho, a

playwriting fellow at the Juilliard School in New York. “Because I’m a

child of immigrants . . . to a certain extent I always felt that past was

unknowable. . . . I think it’s a very human thing to want to know where

[you] came from.”

Having survived a number of readings now, “99 Histories” is

comfortable for Cho to hear aloud.

“I feel like I can put it forth and say, ‘yes, this represents who I

am as a writer,”’ she said.

FYI

* What: Readings at the Pacific Playwrights Festival

* When: “99 Histories” at 1 p.m. April 26, “Exposed” at 3 p.m. April

26, “Intimate Apparel” at 10:30 a.m. April 27, “Truth and Beauty” at 2

p.m. April 27, and “Our Boy” at 11 a.m. April 28 * Where: South Coast Repertory’s Mainstage, 655 Town Center Drive,

Costa Mesa. “Truth and Beauty” will be read at the Westin South Coast

Plaza’s Mesa Verde Room, 686 Anton Blvd., Costa Mesa

* Cost: $8 each

* Call: (714) 708-5555